Detection of 1,3-dihydroxyacetone by tris(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) electrochemiluminescence.

1,3-Dihydroxyacetone, a common cosmetic material and food additive, has been successfully explored as an efficient electrochemiluminescence coreactant of Ru(bpy) for the first time. It is about 25 times more effective than the well-known coreactant sodium oxalate. The high electrochemiluminescence efficiency allows sensitive detection of 1,3-dihydroxyacetone without any derivatization. The electrochemiluminescence method shows two linear electrochemiluminescence responses over the range of 5.0-500 μM and 500 μM-6.0 mM with a detection limit of 1.79 μM. The proposed method is at least two orders of magnitude more sensitive than other reported methods. Graphical abstract ECL intensity-potential profile of 1,3-dihydroxyacetone (DHA) and oxalate.